Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

A parent in touch with Change the Stakes said, "the changes made by the budget bill that lower the stakes for
students are part of the solution, but don’t go far enough. It’s also used to evaluate teachers, it’s also used to evaluate
schools. I’m not just here for my kids, although I’m
very much here for them. I think teachers are an incredibly important
part of the society and they’re getting just stepped on all over.”

Right in the middle of all this is our own lil ole Change the Stakes crew who are getting lots of publicity.

I was just talking to Julie Cavanagh tonight, remembering old times and how we met less than 5 years ago through the resistance to charter movement, which spurred us to make our 2011 film response to that awful pro-charter unmentionable film. and how many people locally and nationally it seemed to inspire to take action. And we remembered meeting a parent at one of our film showings who came because she was so upset at the testing her daughter was going to face. She expressed such great emotion at the impact of the film and jumped into the fray - helping organize a committee of GEM we called Change the Stakes (I think Julie may have come up with the name). That parent was/is Janine Sopp, who has become a giant, joined by other giants in CTS. (See Janine Sopp, Opt-Outer).

Janine broke her back working with parents and film maker Michael Elliot to make this promo for opting out.

Even Charterbeat had an article which features MORE/CTS stalwart woman of steel and stamina, Jia Lee. Less than 2 years ago Jia came to a testing forum GEM put on - with a very pregnant Julie hosting and VROOOM! Jia was the gal on fire. She has become a force of nature in both GEM (she is also chapter leader) and CTS.

You know the lesson of the Janine and Jia and Nancy stories? And even Julie? They got involved because some of us had built some structural organizations taking action that provided a place for them to hang their hats and the freedom for them to flourish. Build it and they will come. But you don't build it by sitting at the keyboard. If you think you do you are under an illusion. It takes organizers to make stuff happen - face to face.

Here is s piece of the chalkbeat piece on Jia -- did they link to the CTS website like they used to with E4E? Did they even think to mention

For Jia Lee, a critic of the state’s standardized tests
who teaches at the Earth School and has a son there, the decision to opt
her child out of this year’s exams was a “no-brainer.”

But Lee felt she could do more, so she and two of her colleagues at
the East Village public school decided to refuse to administer this
year’s state tests.The teachers had already drafted a letter to the schools chancellor
explaining their decision when they were called into their school
office last week. Enough families had opted their children out of the
tests, the teachers were told, that they did not need to proctor the
exam — the teachers’ planned boycott was trumped by their students’. So
on Tuesday, the first of six state-exam days, all but a handful of Lee’s
students worked on a project about immigration instead of taking the
test.As the number of parents who opt out their children grows, and as
test scores play a role in teacher evaluations for the first time,
educators like Lee are being drawn into their protest. Some are simply
providing logistical information to parents; others are sharing their
concerns about over-testing; and still others, including Lee, are opting
out their own children or, in some cases, even encouraging other
parents to.“We’re hoping that more teachers will realize that there’s
empowerment in saying, ‘We don’t want to be a part of this,’” Lee said.The number of city families opting out of state tests this year is
poised to hit a record high, one year after new tests tied to the Common
Core standards resulted in vastly lower scores. While just 276 students
opted out citywide last year, nearly 640 students have already opted
out this year just among six schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan,
according to parents and teachers. The advocacy group Change the Stakes
estimates that 1,000 students or more may decline to take this year’s
test — a tiny portion of the city’s test-takers, but a huge increase
from years past.Many families are opting out despite pushback from their schools. At
least 50 parents told Change the Stakes that school administrators
discouraged them or told them children who skip the tests might be
penalized, according to parent leader Nancy Cauthen. Responding to the
growing tension within schools, Chancellor Carmen Fariña — who herself has expressed reservations about test boycotts — last week told principals to “respect the parents’ decision” if they decide to keep their child from taking the tests.But at many of the opt-out hotspots, educators are offering support —
both explicit and tacit — to families that are choosing to have their
children sit out the tests.Several schools held information sessions for parents who expressed
interest in opting students out of the tests. In most cases, educators
at those schools were “scrupulous” about offering information about
testing while remaining neutral on the question of opting out, said
Jessica Blatt, a parent at Brooklyn’s Arts and Letters Academy, where 83
percent of third graders are not taking the tests.But educators’ comments at the meetings signaled that they were
sympathetic to testing concerns — and emphasized that there would likely
be no significant consequences for families who opted out, according to
people who attended and records of the meetings.Parents at the Earth School organized meetings where middle school
principals explained that students’ lack of test scores would not be
held against them in the admissions process, Lee said. At another forum
for parents, Lee and other teachers described the impact of testing on
their classrooms, she said. Some 57 percent of Earth School students are
not taking this year’s tests.

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UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.